


Wine-dark Streets

by phantomreviewer



Category: Sherlock (TV), Whitechapel (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-16
Updated: 2011-08-16
Packaged: 2017-10-22 20:33:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/242296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantomreviewer/pseuds/phantomreviewer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lestrade, Donovan and Anderson attend the 2010 (East London) Police Awards ceremony.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wine-dark Streets

_**Fic: Wine-dark Streets (Whitechapel/Sherlock Crossover)**_  
 **Title:** Wine-dark Streets  
 **Fandom:** Whitechapel/Sherlock Crossover  
 **Author:** [](http://phantomreviewer.livejournal.com/profile)[**phantomreviewer**](http://phantomreviewer.livejournal.com/)  
 **Pairings/Characters:** Lestrade, Donovan, Anderson, DCI Cazenove, Commander Anderson, DS Miles.  
 **Rating:** PG  
 **Disclaimer:** ITV.  
 **Warnings:** None.  
 **Spoilers:**  Whitechapel- set during 2x01, Sherlock- pre- The Great Game.   
 **A/N:** I got the kindest most out-of-the-blue anonymous review of [my baby](http://phantomreviewer.livejournal.com/179471.html) by someone who has since revealed themselves to be [](http://jitterfly.livejournal.com/profile)[**jitterfly**](http://jitterfly.livejournal.com/)  which inspired me to try my hand at another Whitechapel/Sherlock crossover. So. Here we go.  
 **Summary:** Lestrade, Donovan and Anderson attend the 2010 (East London) Police Awards ceremony.

Lestrade nodded back to DCI Cazenove across the dark room.   
The man smiled at him with his teeth and turned his head back towards his own colleagues.  
   
Lestrade sighed.  
   
He’d never been a fan of DCI Torbin Cazenove, he’d risen through the ranks of the police with far too much speed and not enough efficiency for Lestrade’s liking. The Organised Crime Division almost seemed _too_ good at its job.  
   
And it had nothing to do with Sherlock’s tsking comments whenever the DCI was mentioned. Much.  
   
He didn’t base all of his executive decisions on what Sherlock thought. No matter what certain members of his team thought.  
   
“Such a shame the Freak’s not here. He’d have livened up this dump, I have to give him that much.”  
   
Sally gestured around her with his empty glass of wine, before placing it down on the table.  
   
“You didn’t have to be here Donovan.”  
   
Anderson snorted beside her, and refilled her glass and Lestrade’s.  
   
“No, but you did offer me overtime to come, and I thought that I ought to put you out of your misery.”  
   
“You can’t say no to free alcohol now can you?”  
   
Lestrade took a swig from the full glass in front of him.  
   
The meal provided had been perfectly average, but the wine went some way to help lessen the blow of an apparent wasted evening.  
   
Their table was empty other than the three of them. Such events such as the Police Awards were designed for socialising and to foster team unity. It said something for the quality and harmony of Lestrade’s team that he’d only been able to gather Donovan and Anderson together at the last minute.  
   
It was hard to rally support for an award’s ceremony that wasn’t technically in their jurisdiction.  
   
They’d only been invited to this because Sherlock didn’t have any respect for the notion of police boundaries.  
   
And he hadn’t even bothered to show up, thus making the table two people short and the object of, if not anger then at least confusion.  
   
The most that people had spoken to them over was the matter of their consulting detective and the serial suicides.  
   
It was becoming something of a bore.  
   
Lestrade had been grateful when Anderson and Donovan had left to find something more fitting at the bar and Commander Anderson had slipped into the free seat next to him.  
   
“It’s certainly a surprise to see you at this sort of event DI Lestrade.”  
   
“Shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise sir, the invitation was signed in your name.”  
   
“Well.”  
   
Anderson laughed and looked at the name placement next to the wine-glass Anderson had abandoned.  
   
“Anticipating my arrival?”  
   
Lestrade laughed, genuinely for the first time since they’d arrived to this darned evening.  
   
“No, my Sergeant brought one of our forensics officers as her guest. You just happen to share the same name.”  
   
Anderson smiled and stood.  
   
“It was good to see you Inspector Lestrade. Do try to keep that rogue detective of yours on a short leash, we’d hate for him to impede official investigations now wouldn’t we?”  
   
Lestrade sighed again as Anderson left and waited, with one hand wrapped around the stem of his wine-glass.  
   
Donovan slumped back into her seat a few moments later, followed by Anderson who was pointing subtly over his shoulder.  
   
“Them on the table back there, by the exit,” he waited for Lestrade to nod before continuing, “well they’re DI Chandler’s team. You know. _Them._ ”  
   
And Lestrade did know, there were very few people in the force who didn’t know about the team that had failed to catch the Second Ripper. There were hundreds of different theories about how they managed to let him escape through their fingers. It had been a horrible investigation, from what Lestrade had read of it and he was grateful that it wasn’t his prerogative.  
   
Sherlock hadn’t been so understanding.  
   
An announcement cut through Lestrade’s thoughts.  
   
“Award for bravery: Detective Sergeant Ray Miles”  
   
Which was swiftly echoed by a “Way! Go on Sarge!”  
   
And then he noticed who’s sergeant Ray Miles actually was.  
   
Miles was known in the force for being an old-timer, dedicated and traditional. But Lestrade hadn’t known -it seemed ridiculous that he hadn’t known- that he was DI Chandler’s sergeant.  
   
The short man, Ray, stood at the podium and looked out over the full room with something like anger in his eyes.  
   
“I’ll keep it short and sweet. I got stabbed in the liver by the Ripper and I nearly bled to death. I’m standing here now ‘cause my DI stayed with me. Saved my life. He could have given chase, made the arrest and solved the case of a life time. But he didn’t. He stayed by my side. And for that we’re punished. Stuck right at the back on the last table next to the bins. See, I can’t help thinking, if he’d have let me die and made the arrest and gone on to catch the Ripper, we’d be sitting at the front here, where the champagne is. Since when is saving your sergeant’s life the wrong decision? So thanks for this, but no thanks and now I just need to catch a bus back to my table.”  
   
It surprised Lestrade that it was Cazenove who stood first and started the applause. But the man always knew how to read the tension in a room.  
   
Despite of his scepticism Lestrade was on his feet soon afterwards. And he could see in his peripheral vision Donovan and Anderson do the same.  
   
Miles knew what real policing was, that’s what he was talking about. It’s about more than just solving crimes, it’s about righting wrongs.  
   
Even Sherlock hadn’t been able to work out who the Ripper had been, and he’d hijacked the met computer system. If Sherlock couldn’t manage it then how could this DI Chandler have managed?  
   
Chandler had done the right thing to stay with his sergeant, no matter what the authorities said.  
   


He just hoped that one day, if he had to choose between solving and crime and saving a life he’d choose the right one.

  
He liked to think he would.


End file.
